Banjo Assembly: Parts 1,2,3,4,5,6,7...uh-oh!

Well, this is Clayton again, and I am in a little bit of pain from landing hard on my shoulder after tripping over first base yesterday. Yes, it was embarrassing. I was trying to beat out a ground ball, and I was running as fast as I could when the tip of my foot tripped over the edge of first and I did a face plant, actually, more of a shoulder plant into the ground. I think I bruised it pretty badly, and I was out on the play as well…….
I have been really enjoying the sound I am getting out of my banjo lately. It is not too bright, not too harsh, and is somewhat mellow, but also has a really nice sound for traditional Scruggs stuff.
For those of you that don’t know, I play a Mahogany Gold Star GF-100FE, that I have had for about a year. I got the banjo after my dad gave me a hundred bucks and a loan to buy it for my birthday last year. Needless to say, this banjo is much better than my old aluminum rim banjo. After I got the banjo, I started trying to modify it. My mom has said that my banjo is like my car. Most teenage guys love their cars, and will do lots of things to "supe" them up. Not me. I have a banjo.
The first thing I did immediately after getting the banjo was change out the bridge on it. I took off the really weird compensated bridge that came with it, and put on the Nechville Enterprise Bridge that was on my aluminum rim Asian banjo. The bridge sounded really good on the Asian banjo, but it didn’t do what was needed on the Gold Star. After the three or so months it took me to figure this out, I switched to a Huber bridge. Aha! I had almost found the sound I was looking for!
I then decided for some reason, still unknown to me, that in order to get the sound I wanted, I needed to take apart my banjo. I am not sure, but I think I thought it would sound better if I cleaned it.
I started one Saturday morning in June, I think, and the disassembly was going wonderfully. This was the first time I had ever tried to do something like this, and it was very exciting. I might have gotten carried away a little bit though, because I decided to take the tone ring off the rim for fun, which in hindsight probably wasn’t a good idea, as well as unscrewing the coordinator rods and removing the neck completely. Unscrewing the coordinator rods, which for the uninitiated are the two metal rods inside the body of the banjo that adjust the neck angle, was an especially bad idea. The reason why was because I did not know how to reset them properly.  I, of course, didn’t think of that when I unscrewed them. I thought of it immediately after I unscrewed them. That’s also when I realized that I wasn’t completely sure how to put it all back together. I kind of panicked, because there was no way my parents would pay a banjo repairman (yes, they are out there) to reassemble my axe. And I didn’t really want to pay a banjo repairman either. So I tried to put it back together, and after about two months of minor tweaking, it was sounding pretty good again. So I played it that way for a while, too scared to try anything extremely drastic (except for the speed necking incident, which I already have written about in a previous blog). It was sounding pretty decent, but it was still missing something.
In January of this year, I summoned the courage to try something new. I had heard a lot about the Sullivan Old Growth Factory Floor banjo bridge, and decided to try it. The Sullivan bridge is made from extremely old maple that grew during a mini-ice Age, then was made into flooring at a factory during the 1800s. The owner of this banjo company bought the flooring from the factory and made most of the wood into rims, and a bit of it into bridges. This wood, because it grew during a mini-ice age, is extremely dense, which is good. Anyway, I bought the bridge, and installed it without any problem on my banjo. After starting to play it, I noticed a big difference in the sound, it was what I was looking for! I have been happily playing since then, but I am still on the lookout to try and get it to sound better. I learned a couple of lessons from this experience:  make sure you can put something back together before taking it apart, and listen to quiet nagging doubts about the sanity of taking apart expensive objects.  

Comments

[Katie Ross]

Sorry about your shoulder! I'm trying to figure out if I would have laughed or not. Probably not. Maybe. I'm still undecided. :D

[Alicia]

I have no problem saying I WOULD LAUGH!Tripping over a base while running to it. That's just sad and very embarrassing and a little uncoordinated.

[Kathryn]

If I was there, I couldn't stop myself from laughing, but I'd be appologetic when I saw you get up - fortunately everyone has embarrassing moments.

[Janine Campbell]

Clayton, LOL at your banjo taking apart experience. You are so funny and write very well. I agree with both those things you learned having learned them myself.
Unfortunately I was never able to put back together what I took apart. I agree with the nagging doubts about taking apart expensive things, especially with your dad. I can't imagine him paying for a banjo repairman either.

I'm glad you got it back together and can't wait to hear the new sound. I really missed not getting to see you this May but hopefully next year I can come.

[Clayton Hess]

Thank you so much Aunt Janine! We really missed you this year, and we all hope you will get to come next year, because you are a very fun person! This actually was one of the few times I have ever able to put something back together. I usually don't pay very close attention when I am taking something apart, and as a result, don't remember how to reassemble it. (that happened with my airsoft gun, a very watershed moment) I hope you are doing well, and that we will see you soon!

To Katie, Alicia, Kathryn: I laughed at myself. :)